These teachings relate generally to component value estimation in power supplies/converters.
In the field of DC to DC converters and power supplies in general, in order to achieve optimum transient performance, it is necessary to know the power components values of the power supply. In a typical power supply application, a load capacitance may not be well known since the power supply is expected to work with a variety of loads. Physical load capacitance has an equivalent series resistance (ESR) and equivalent series inductance (ESL) in addition to capacitance. For many cases the equivalent series inductance may be insignificant. However, the equivalent series resistance may not be insignificant. The effect of the series resistance is to create high-frequency zero and transfer function between duty cycle and output voltage. The capacitance ESR has a well known effect on closed loop stability and must be accounted for.
To measure the properties of any network a signal may be injected. Adaptive methods can inject a known duty cycle waveform and measure its response on the output voltage. These methods have the limitation that the injected signal can cause a deviation of the output, which can defeat the purpose of a power supply, i.e. to eliminate these variations. Thus, what is needed is a measurement method that does not require an injected signal.